The life of Nathan Holdshire
by Lurtz93
Summary: This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction. I really love the mass effect story line however i was interested in what happened on earth during the time that Shepard was going round the galaxy rounding up support. So i figured i would write my own interpretation of what happened.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first attempt at fanfiction. To my mind Mass effect 3 was a great game because the game follows Shepard you don't really see how the fight on earth went. This is my first installation on the fight went on.

_**Invasion**_

I watched in disbelief as the building exploded. It was a new building, recently made to house the HQ of the Alliance military. It was built to withstand anything that humanity could possibly face. Giving more than enough time for the important personnel time to run to ground, in dozens of stategically placed bunkers where they could still direct operations.

Within seconds of the arrival it was gone. Five minutes before I had seen an Admiral and Shepard, the first human spectre, enter the Chambers of the alliance council. Now I was staring at the flaming ruins of that same room. I felt a surge of anger. I'd heard the stories, everyone had, about how Shepard had saved the galaxy from the rogue spectre Saren. How he had been killed and brought back to life and how he had stopped the collectors. Now he was dead. It wasn't confirmed but no one could have survived that explosion. Then I heard a voice bark over comms

"God dammit Corporal, there is nothing we can do for them. Let us focus on those we can help." My sergeants voice was calm but tinged with an undercurrent of fury. I tore my eyes away from the HQ and swore violently. Then prepared the doors of the Kodiak dropship to open. We had been heading to a fitting station to refit the weapons in anticipation of an invasion. I guessed it had started. We were now heading to areas of high civilian population to try and evacuate as many as possible. In our was 5 soldiers from the 1st Assault Brigade. Me and my sergeant with 3 grunts. We were flying with a second Kodiak with another 5 marines from our unit.

"We have a visual on civilians by the docks." Came the comm chatter from the pilots seat. I saw where the hull camera was pointing and said, "Negative Sergeant, that area is too hot. Enemy capital ship is too close."

"I don't care, we are not leaving those people to die!" The Sergeant shot back, venom in his voice. I shook my head but motioned to Fieldhead to prepare to open the door.

"Roger, we are ready to deploy." The Kodiak began to descend and the co-pilot bustled his way back and smiled ruefully. "You know the drill?" I nodded, we had been over civilian extraction numerous times.

"We get out and secure the drop site. Load the civvies. If there is room left we get on, if not we hightail it back to the nearest rendezvous, hook up with any others and get the hell out of there." The guy nodded.

Then we touched down. " Go! Go! Go!" I yelled. Fieldhead jumped to the ground and was killed by a projectile, blood sprayed and heard " Man down! Man Down!" Over the radio. Downes yelled a curse and threw a grenade in the direction of the shots. An explosion some devilish screams of pain and then the shooting stopped. I dropped out the door and moved into a covering position. Downes ran for the wall which the civilians crouched behind.

I saw movement and fired a burst into the smoke. I saw blood spill across the pavement and then more and more forms swarmed forwards. I fought back bile in my throat. The creatures came in two types one was a heavily mutated creature, with some sort of sack on its back. they had wide open mouths and four eyes. They looked oddly familiar, which made me feel uneasy. It wasn't until I saw the second kind that I realised what was happening. The second type was... well... human. They were a deathly grey colour, with electric blue eyes, chests and stomachs. They almost looked like the husks that had been made by the Geth on Eden Prime, but these looked more... professional? Like the old husks had been upgraded.

"Downes, get the civvies loaded now. This shit is bad." I managed to choke out. I had seen a lot of nasty stuff, slave traders, battles against mercenaries using varren or other local wildlife as weapons. But this made me feel sick. I couldn't imagine the terror of the human and batarian prisoners who had become these monsters.

"Yeah, last few are boarding now. No room for us we'll have to push a path to the RV."

"Roger." I said back. The sergeant piloting our Kodiak screamed a warning down the com and a new wave of hostiles charged. Rockets came out of nowhere and blew the wave apart. I looked over to where the missiles originated and saw a frigate rising from the dock 100m away. Stood on the cargo bay were three humans.

One was a standard marine. One had custom blue armour, minus her helmet with flowing black hair. Lieutenant-Commander Williams. And a male. Tall, with short black hair in dress blues. I recognised the markings on his shoulder. Commander. I felt a vibration and a shadow passed over me I tore my eyes off the frigate and turned to the dropships.

"Sarge you have to take off. Now!" I shouted over the static. I heard nothing back, but the sound of the engines flaring indicated that he'd got the message, or had figured it out for himself. Just before take off a young child, no more than 6 years old came running from a container. I held the door until he climbed on board. He looked terrified and I felt a surge of protective anger for the boy against these monsters.

The door slid closed and I banged on the door shouting at Sarge to get the hell out of there. The ships raised and then gained speed. I began to relax and then I heard a sound that chilled my blood. It was a high pitched sound like nothing I had ever heard before. Then I saw the same weapon that had reduced the Alliance HQ building to rubble. I stared in disbelief as the laser cut one of the Kodiak's in half. The beam stopped and I thought the boy would get away. Then the beam shot out again and the second Kodiak exploded.

An icy fist clenched my heart. I turned and saw Downes standing motionless, for once his prodigious strength had been useless against an overwhelming enemy. " We need to go." I said, my voice settling into a tone of icy calm.

I looked towards where the frigate had been and saw the fading name across the sky. Normandy. I put that together with the scene I had seen earlier.

Shepard was alive.


	2. Chapter 2

_**The Admiral**_

"Downes we need to go now!" I shouted down the comm. I looked over to where he stood in shellshock. I sprinted over and tackled him behind cover as a wave of bullets whistled in the air over our heads. I slapped him on the helmet.

"Terry, we need to hit the RV. There is nothing we can do for Sarge and the others." I said, hoping that the return to his Christian name would jar him out of it. He shook his head and his arms scrambled slowly behind him and then he let out a howl. I grabbed his arm and he took it rising unsteadily to his feet.

"You okay soldier?" I asked as I thrust his rifle back into his hands. He nodded and indicated that we should head towards the lower docks. I hesitated and reminded him that the RV was over the bridge about 2 miles in the opposite direction.

"I hear shots down where that frigate was before it took off." He said, his voice only slightly showing the strain he clearly felt. I listened and then shrugged the bastards were shooting everything that moved. Then I realised. Some of the shots were higher and sharper than the others, the sound of avenger assault rifles and predator pistols. Alliance personnel.

As one we sprinted to ledge leading down to the docks. We didn't stop at the edge. I felt the power surge in my legs and leapt from the edge. Usually this would have been a really bad idea. The ledge was at least five metres high and in regular issue armour the force of the fall would overload the shock absorbers and break at least two bones in my legs.

However we were in the new assault armour. As we neared the ground, small thrusters on the bottom of our boots fired and slowed down our descent. Our arrival did not go unnoticed. We heard a shrill shriek come from the invaders followed by a wave rounds.

"They're friendly." I commented drily as we dived behind a burnt out skycar. Downes looked at me made a quick hand signal. I popped out from cover and unleashed a barrage of fire into the husks that were rushing our position. Downes tapped furiously on his omni-tool trying to get a link to the marines we were attempting to link up with. Apparently someone on the other side had the same idea.

"Hello? Hello? Oh god. If there are. This is Specialist King with the Engineering corps. We have important cargo and need immediate aid. Hello?"

"Hey, hey we read you okay, alliance marine corps, we are just south of your position. Taking fire but we can push through" I said in as calming a voice as I could, I heard Downes try to hide a laugh with a cough over our squad comm line.

"Oh thank god" The voice came back over the line, "We need your squad to clear the area in front of our location and provide a perimeter until our extraction team arrives. We could give you a lift." She said her relief evident.

Downes jumped in, "Whoa, slowdown sunshine. Squad? There are only two of us. Rest of our squad... They got shot down. We can get you out of here but you will have to send your extraction team to our RV." He cursed over the open line as a round passed close to his head.

"Two of you? Bu...but there are hundreds." the voice wavered. I felt her anxiety jump across the space.

"We'll be with you in a heartbeat." I assured her, then closed the channel. I looked at Downes and grinned. We both knew our tasks, for a moment we were soldiers, we had our purpose and all our pain and fear melted away and was replace by a sense of grim determination we would not let them die.

We split. Downes sprinted out and charged towards the bulk of the creatures. They turned towards him and he dived behind a low wall and levelled his shotgun over it. I waited for him to draw fire then I exploded from cover and dashed towards the nav point that I had been given by King. I ran at full velocity into a husk, connecting with my shoulder and crushing its chest, swung my omni-blade and cut another one in half.

I felt a jolt in my back and saw my HUD flash red as my shields drained. I cursed and crashed over a mound of rubble and stopped. A wave of fire crashed over my head, the snap of avengers and creature tumbled down the mound and lay still. A hand gripped my arm and started to drag me to the barricade. I shook it off and stood. Turning back I saw Downes bounding towards us. I snatched a rifle from the soldier and shot 3 of the mutants that had a clear shot on his back.

I turned and walked back towards the harbour area that had been created. I heard Downes jog over the mound and slowed to a walk.

"Did you set the bomb?" I asked on an open channel.

A woman's voice chimed in "What bomb?"

Boom!

I turned to the woman who had asked the question, as she seemed to be in charge.

"Right, we need to go, now. How many of you are left? and how many injured do you have?" She rattled started rattling of names but I broke in. "It's extremely important to be brief" I reminded her.

I got the information. Twelve active, two minor wounds and a critical. Eight dead.

"Where's this package you were protecting?" I asked. I could hear the invaders calling out, regrouping beyond our line of fire and let a tinge of impatience colour my tone. I saw blood creep up her neck and she motioned for me to follow. In the centre of the harbour area was a small shelter. Three men sat inside. They saw us and stood.

"Right soldiers who is your..." I began before I realised that the older man was wearing dress blues with a rank on the shoulders. I snapped to attention and gave the man a crisp salute.

"At ease soldier." The man spoke with a deep calm voice, one I had heard before. It clicked.

I let out a sigh, "Oh shit, why didn't you leave on the Normandy?"

Admiral David Anderson shook his head and made a comment about needing to organise a resistance. I raised an eyebrow.

"It's a good thing we have a plan to get you out of here then isn't it."

Just then Downes blew the secondary explosive.


End file.
